In the midst of an election-night shakeup of the Adelanto City Council, an ousted city clerk is the latest to take legal action against the city, Mayor Rich Kerr and City Manager Jessie Flores, alleging whistleblower retaliation for reporting suspected illegal conduct.

In a claim filed with the city Tuesday, Cynthia Herrera alleges she was terminated over the summer for refusing to fire certain employees who were not allied with Kerr and Flores, whom Herrera claims is Kerr’s “agent and clandestine assistant.” Directing Hererra to dismiss certain employees, in violation of the city charter, was among a slew of other alleged illegal activities committed by Kerr and Flores, according to the claim.

The city has 45 days to either reject the claim or settle with Herrera.

In Tuesday’s election, Kerr and Councilman John “Bug” Woodard were both sent to defeat by voters in the High Desert community. Gabriel Reyes was elected the city’s new mayor, Gerardo Hernandez will replace Woodard and Stevevonna Evans will replace Councilman Charley Glasper, who did not run for re-election and has not been implicated in the scandal, although he went along with Kerr and Flores’ dream to transform the city into California’s marijuana mecca.

‘Fresh start’ for new council

“They have a chance at a fresh start to set things right for these people whose rights were violated, and to save the city from certain bankruptcy or disincorporation,” attorney Tristan Pelayes, a former mayor of Adelanto, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Pelayes, of the Riverside law firm Wagner & Pelayes, held a news conference Wednesday morning announcing the filing of Herrera’s claim. Attending the news conference were newly elected council members as well as Councilman Ed Camargo, Pelayes said.

“They want to resolve these lawsuits and start fresh,” Pelayes said of Camargo, the mayor-elect and the two newly elected council members. “They don’t want this place to be a cesspool.”

Pelayes also represents former City Manager Gabriel Elliott, who sued the city last week, and former city IT supervisor Dan Pina, who was terminated after cooperating in an FBI probe into allegations of corrupt activity in the city surrounding marijuana cultivators, growers and transporters. A claim has not been filed yet in Pina’s case, Pelayes said.

Clerk tenure: 31 years

Herrera worked for the city for 31 years before she was fired, without City Council approval, on Aug. 20. In her more than three-decade career with the community that abuts Victorville, Herrera held the positions of deputy city clerk/executive secretary, city clerk, city manager and administrative services director.

City spokesman Michael Stevens declined to comment Wednesday. Kerr and Flores did not respond to a request for comment.

The city has been mired in controversy and scandal for decades, from police corruption to teetering on bankruptcy to the latest allegations of graft. Specifically, council members are suspected of taking bribes from marijuana entrepreneurs in exchange for questionable land deals and zoning privileges, among other things.

Last November, former Councilman Jermaine Wright was arrested and subsequently indicted on suspicion of taking a $10,000 cash bribe from an undercover FBI agent, and paying another undercover FBI agent $1,500 to burn down his restaurant, Fat Boyz Grill, so he could collect on a $300,000 insurance policy, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Wright has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his trial is scheduled for February in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Officials ‘became enraged’

FBI agents cart off boxes and plastic storage bins full of documents and other materials following a raid at the home of Adelanto Mayor Rich Kerr in May. (PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Nelson

Herrera alleges in her claim that when she refused to fire the City Hall employees as directed, Kerr and Flores “became enraged” and threatened to fire her.

Herrera’s allegations mirror those of three other former employees who have sued the city — Nan Moore, Mike Borja and Belen Cordero — who allege they were singled them out for termination after Kerr was elected mayor. They are seeking millions of dollars in general and punitive damages.

Herrera also alleges Flores took a city-paid vacation to Dubai under the guise it was to promote business relations with the city, and that Kerr borrowed $30,000 from public works manager Don Wappler that he used for his mayoral campaign and did not report it on his campaign finance forms.

Meth use alleged

Kerr also was allegedly under the influence of drugs during a meeting with Herrera, and Wappler told Herrera “he knew the mayor was using methamphetamine and where the mayor was buying it from,” according to the claim.

Kerr and Flores, Herrera states in her claim, directed city staff to waive fees for city services to friends, and also instructed code enforcement to “stand down” and not enforce city ordinances against marijuana cultivators they favored or had personal dealings with.

“I also have documented, corroborating evidence of Mayor Kerr directing code enforcement to stand down while they were getting ready to confiscate 600 marijuana plants from an unpermitted (marijuana) dispensary,” Pelayes said.

Kerr also retaliated against Herrera by having his secretary, Rachel Suraci, file a sham workplace harassment complaint against Herrera, which an investigator found to be without merit, according to the claim.

Suraci is the same person former City Manager Elliott accused in his lawsuit of filing a trumped-up sexual harassment complaint against him, at Kerr’s insistence, after Elliott refused to partake in illegal or unethical conduct involving land deals and sales of city property to marijuana cultivators.

As with the other former employees suing the city, Pelayes said Herrera was egregiously fired for simply not bending to the will of Kerr and Flores and going along with their unethical and illegal conduct.

“She was told to play ball, fire people that Kerr and Flores didn’t like, turn the other way, allow the marijuana industry to come in without the due process everyone else has to go through, and she said ‘no,’ ” Pelayes said.

Joe Nelson is an award-winning investigative reporter who has worked for The Sun since November 1999. He started as a crime reporter and went on to cover a variety of beats including courts and the cities of Colton, Highland and Grand Terrace. He has covered San Bernardino County since 2009. Nelson is a graduate of California State University Fullerton. In 2014, he completed a fellowship at Loyola Law School's Journalist Law School program.